Midnight's Warrior (22 page)

“No’ when those females went on a killing spree that would begin with their family. No’ when they would leave the forest and go into any village they found and kill everyone.”

Tara looked away and laid her hand upon Ramsey’s heart. “Only the men, huh?”

“Even then it wasna easy to hold back the magic. Especially for me.”

Her gaze shot to his. “What do you mean?”

“If my people were known for how powerful their magic was, mine exceeded theirs ten times over. I was supposed to be their next leader, the one who a Seer foretold could never be defeated by magic.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Ramsey wasn’t sure why he’d told Tara his biggest secret. It seemed right though. As if she needed to know.

He looked away from her steady gaze to the wisps of magic floating around them. Except they weren’t really moving around them more than through each of them now.

Almost as if the magic were connecting them.

Ramsey couldn’t feel the magic as it entered and left his body, but his magic sensed it. And the longer he touched Tara the stronger the ribbons became.

“I don’t think I understand,” Tara said into the silence after his statement.

Ramsey smiled wryly. “What? That I’m supposed to have all this magic and yet I couldna defeat Declan?”

“No. If you have that kind of magic why didn’t you fight Deirdre? Why didn’t you destroy her when you could have?”

Ramsey raised his gaze to the ceiling. “It is a question I asked myself every hour of every day I was held in Cairn Toul mountain. But I doubted myself. I doubted the prophecy of the Seer. Magic has to be certain, and if it’s not, only catastrophe awaits.”

“Why would you doubt what was foretold? Seers don’t give voice to their visions casually.”

“I might have learned spells easily. I might have gained unique control over my magic earlier than any Torrachilty Druid before me, but that didna make me the man foretold. That Seer never saw my face, never spoke my name. It could have been anyone.”

Her hand caressed his chest as she laid her cheek over his heart. “True, but the rest of your people must have thought you were the one.”

“Actually, no one knew.” When her head jerked up Ramsey chuckled as he glanced at her. “I surprised you?”

“Yes. If this foretelling took place how could no one know?”

“It was told only to the elders who passed it down to the next elders. They didna want our people putting thoughts into the head of someone that couldna be the one.”

“Then how did you know?”

Ramsey released a long breath. “My uncle was one of the elders. They told my father when it seemed that I could be the one. I was then pushed harder than any others. I never failed a single mission they gave me.”

“I gather they were difficult,” she said.

“More than difficult. Some nearly killed me, yet I never gave up. I kept going. I had no idea why they were pushing me so hard. For years they kept it to themselves. And then the MacLeod clan was wiped out in a single day.”

Tara shivered. “I know that story. My mother thought it was a great show of Deirdre’s power to lure the MacLeod brothers away, then come in and destroy the clan. Every last man, woman, and child.”

“Deirdre didna even leave an animal alive,” Ramsey said. “The horses, the chickens, the sheep. All were slaughtered without thought. Then she set fire to the castle. Time has weathered the burn marks, but they can still be seen.”

“You say this as if you saw the destruction yourself,” Tara whispered.

Ramsey looked into her blue-green eyes. “Because I did. I was sent here to see if the rumors were true, to see if the MacLeods had been murdered.”

“Why? I mean, why you? If you were so important to your people, why did they send you?”

Ramsey shrugged one shoulder and played with the ends of Tara’s hair. “Because of what I could do. You know if a Druid’s magic is strong enough they are given a gift.”

“Like Sonya can heal.”

“Exactly.”

“Then I suppose if your magic was as strong as they said, you could do something wondrous.”

“Wondrous,” Ramsey repeated softly. “No’ really. I can determine if magic was used and what kind of magic.”

Tara whistled low and turned so that she rested her chin on the hand atop his chest. “No wonder they sent you.”

“I didna even have to reach the MacLeod lands to feel Deirdre’s black magic. By the time I ventured to the castle, the brothers had already been tricked into going to Deirdre’s mountain a few years before. I quickly began my journey back to Torrachilty Forest.”

His voice died as he recalled the night he was taken. The shrieks, the screams.

“Ramsey?” Tara whispered.

He mentally shook himself and forced a smile. “Just remembering.”

“You don’t have to tell me.”

But he did want to tell her. He didn’t understand why he had such a fierce need to have her know about this critical part of him that his friends had only just learned.

“I know,” he said.

She smiled, her blue-green eyes soft and patient as she looked at him.

Ramsey licked his lips and said, “The journey took nearly two weeks on foot. I was days from reaching the forest when they came upon me one night.”

“Who?”

“The wyrran. They were created by Deirdre using her black magic. They were no taller than a child with pale, hairless yellow skin.”

“Large yellow eyes and a mouthful of teeth that their lips couldn’t close over,” Tara finished with a shudder. “I saw pictures of those creatures recently.”

“They are all dead now. We killed them when we killed Deirdre. She had thousands of them before Declan pulled her into the future. She used them to track and find whoever she was looking for. That night, they came for me.”

“Did you not fight them off?”

“I killed several, but I knew what they were. I knew if I used magic they would tell Deirdre. So, I used my blade instead. Even without calling forth my magic I was quicker than a mere mortal. Because I knew what the wyrran were, I hid my magic so they couldna sense it. I held them off longer than they anticipated. By the time dawn came, however, they had me. They wasted no time in carting me to Deirdre.”

“And then what?”

“I was the first one she captured after the MacLeods. As soon as I was dumped in front of her, she unbound my god. I didna have time to even try to use my magic. And then with my god trying to gain control, I didna dare turn my attention from him for fear he would take over.”

Ramsey stopped as memories he’d long kept buried resurfaced with a vengeance. He recalled the pain of his god stretching inside him as bones popped out of joint and broke all through his body before melding back together in a process so painful Ramsey thought he would die.

And then the voice of his god, loud and demanding, echoing in his head as it ordered blood and death to all.

“Was it hard?” Tara asked. “To hold off your god?”

Ramsey chuckled dryly. “There were times I wanted to give in just to have some relief. I couldna sleep, because if I did, he would take over. The lack of sleep combined with the constant assault of my god nearly broke me. He was so insistent, Tara. I know how easy it is to give in, to stop fighting. I doona blame any of the Warriors who can no’ hold the gods at bay.”

“And your god. What’s his name?”

“Ethexia. He’s the god of thieves.”

She made a sound in the back of her throat. “And his preferred color is bronze?”

“Aye.”

“When did you finally gain control over him?”

Ramsey rubbed the locks of her pale brown hair with its golden strands between his fingers. “I have no idea how long it took. It was a constant fight that seemed to last an eternity. Then one day it didna take so long to battle him and win. The next was even less. Day after day it got easier and easier to control him until I had the upper hand.”

“Does he not try to take over anymore?”

“Of course. He is a god, after all. But I’m in control.”

It was the way her blue-green eyes watched him that told him he wouldn’t like her next question.

“Are you always in control?”

Ramsey stared at her for several long minutes before he gave a quick shake of his head. “When Deirdre unbound my god it mixed with my magic. I can no’ do major magic without calling forth Ethexia. Even the small bits of magic I’ve done lately have taken a toll.”

“Wouldn’t it be the case that the more you use your magic the more control you’d have? Just as when you fought your god?” she asked.

He smiled as he ran his hands through her hair. “Most likely.”

“Except you’ve hurt innocents when you did.”

“Aye. I’ve rarely used my magic in the centuries I’ve been a Warrior. I can call forth my god without using my magic, but no’ the other way around.”

Tara’s lips twisted in a frown. “That doesn’t seem very fair. Is that why you never attacked Deirdre yourself?”

“That and the fact that once I did get control of Ethexia, I no longer had the confidence in my magic I had before. I tried doing a few small spells, and the power I felt left me reeling. Several times Deirdre nearly caught me. I’d seen what she did to Druids.”

“Which was? I want to know since most of my family thought she should’ve ruled the world.”

“They might no’ have been so quick to admire her if they had known she hunted Druids,
mies
and
droughs
alike. She brought them to her mountain where she drained them of blood to take their magic and then killed them.”

“Oh, God,” Tara said as she sat up and covered her mouth with her hand.

Ramsey watched her as all he’d told her sank in.

“If my family knew all about Deirdre, why didn’t they know this?” she asked.

“Maybe they chose no’ to believe it.”

Tara turned so that she faced him. “You won against Deirdre. Dani told me how you and Laria helped to end Deirdre.”

“It felt so good,” Ramsey said with a smile. “Just like when I tricked her into thinking I would do whatever she wanted, and I escaped.”

“I bet that did feel good.”

“For a few moments. Then, I remembered all the other Warriors still inside. Broc and I had grown close. I wanted him to escape while I stayed and spied on Deirdre. Somehow, he talked me into letting him be the one who did the spying.”

Tara leaned down and kissed him. “It all worked out in the end.”

“For the most part. I wish it were all over with. I’m sorry I didna kill Declan, Tara. I promised you I would, and I failed.”

She put her finger over his lips. “Shh. We’ll get Declan.”

Ramsey wanted to argue, but she straddled him and all thoughts save for making love to Tara vanished. His cock swelled instantly, and the hunger for her that had never vanished roared to the surface.

He smiled as he shifted her so he could take one of her luscious breasts in hand and lick her nipple. Her answering moan was just what he needed.

Though he might have hurried through the first time they made love, he wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. He wanted time with her body, time to savor her and love her as she deserved.

But before he could, she moved her hand between their bodies. Her slim fingers wrapped around his aching rod firmly before she began to slowly move her hand up and down his length.

“Tara,” Ramsey ground out. “I want to take my time, and I can no’ with your hand on me.”

She leaned forward and nipped at the lobe of his ear. “You can take your time later. Now it’s my turn.”

Ramsey groaned from the wonderful feel of her hand on him as well as the realization that this time she was the one in command.

He looked up at her to see her smiling down at him. This time was hers, but next time would be all his.

All thought fled as she lowered herself atop him, her slick heat enveloping him slowly. And then she sat up. Ramsey gripped her hips, his gaze feasting on the beautiful sight before him.

Tara’s bare breasts, her nipples hard and gleaming from his kisses. Her hair was wild about her and falling over her shoulders to end above her beautiful breasts. The amazing white tendrils of magic that had grown longer and thicker as they touched swirled about them. But it was the triumphant smile on her face that made his heart beat double time.

Then she began to move. Back and forth, slow then fast. Her head dropped back as she rode him hard.

Ramsey teased her nipples until Tara’s soft cries filled the chamber. He could feel her body tightening around his cock. With his fingers splayed on her stomach, he used his thumb to find her clitoris.

He circled the tiny, swollen nub, and with each stroke Tara’s hips jerked faster.

The first clench of her tight sheath around his cock sent him spiraling into his own climax. Tara screamed his name and fell upon his chest as her body milked him.

Ramsey held her tightly as his seed spilled inside her. He’d never felt so complete, so content, as he did with her in his arms.

He didn’t let go of her, even when his eyes drifted shut.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Declan stared at his face in the mirror of his lavish bathroom. Gone were his polished good looks. Now, the left side of his face was marred by the same ugly black streaks beneath his skin. They radiated out from his hairline onto his cheek and fanned out to his chin and up his forehead.

He’d never seen anything so atrocious. He could barely stand to look at himself now. His looks had been an asset he hadn’t had to use his magic for.

And no amount of magic could conceal what marked him now. Because it was magic inside him that was doing it.

Why his potent black magic couldn’t win against whatever was inside him Declan didn’t know. He’d tried everything, exhausted every spell he knew. And even went looking for other spells that might help.

They’d been risky, but in the end nothing had succeeded.

Declan put his hands on either side of the sink and looked down. It wasn’t just that the black forks marked his skin and left him writhing in pain. It was the fact that he couldn’t win against it.

And that’s what bothered him the most.

That allowed his men, even his cousin, to think his magic wasn’t as strong as he’d claimed it to be. They questioned him now. Which he couldn’t allow.